Brainstorm to make cash for Valpo

[usc4valpo]

With Valpo's identity, what can they do to increase revenue? Maybe a Lutheran/Christian TV network? Maybe something like Osteen but genuine?

Let's be creative. Everything is on the table for discussion.

[crusadermoe]

Since there are no bad ideas in this type of excercise, all of them should go to the board or S.P. committee to enfold somewhere in the 14-point strategic plan even it has a 2025 target?

[usc4valpo]

Ok, bag this thread

[VULB#62]

With Valpo's identity, what can they do to increase revenue? Maybe a Lutheran/Christian TV network? Maybe something like Osteen but genuine?

Let's be creative. Everything is on the table for discussion.

Actually, there was/is one (kind of). The Lutheran Hour. Began in 1930. Still exists. https://www.lutheranhour.org/history.asp

A fraternity brother of mine was Paul Hoffman, son of Rev. Oswald C.J. Hoffman, who was the LH preacher from 1955  - 1988.

[usc4valpo]

I want to be careful to make sure my suggestion, which is sacked, does not offend anyone.

[David81]

No need to take back any suggestions....true brainstorming means toss it out for discussion! 😀

I'll give this some thought, too!

Happy New Year to all, I've enjoyed our many discussions here and look forward to more.

[historyman]

With Valpo's identity, what can they do to increase revenue? Maybe a Lutheran/Christian TV network? Maybe something like Osteen but genuine?

Let's be creative. Everything is on the table for discussion.

Actually, there was/is one (kind of). The Lutheran Hour. Began in 1930. Still exists. https://www.lutheranhour.org/history.asp

A fraternity brother of mine was Paul Hoffman, son of Rev. Oswald C.J. Hoffman, who was the LH preacher from 1955  - 1988.

No disrespect but The Lutheran Hour, which one of my family members was involved in when we lived in St Louis and Oswald Hoffman was a very personal friend of my family member, is a totally LCMS production and that just isn't Valpo anymore. It would have to be a Valpo only production and would have to have a totally independent Lutheran identity.   

Yes, I, myself, spent many hours at the Lutheran Laymans League headquarters on Hampton Ave. in St. Louis and listening to the program being produced and aired at KFUO radio the flagship station of the Lutheran Hour. 


Our History :: Lutheran Hour Ministries (lhm.org)

[David81]

Thinking out loud......it may add up to nothin', or, VU may already be doing it!!!

-Build things around the Day of Giving, which has become pretty successful and has the potential to be more so. I know that universities much prefer unrestricted gifts, but perhaps adding more menu options to support interesting initiatives might boost giving. And maybe add some PBS-style gifts or raffles. Anything to get more alums in the habit of giving.

-Long-term: Get more of these aging boomers and early Gen Xers to add VU to their estate plans. Some might be able to designate a lot; others, just a token amount. (I'm somewhere in the middle: Between my modest annual giving and a modest eventual estate gift, I'll be creating a modest scholarship fund to provide need-based support for students who wish to study abroad. Yes, I know I mentioned "modest" three times, but my point is that this kind of giving is within the realm of many who are earning professional salaries, even if not in the upper class.) It's the long-range work. This is how you can quietly build an endowment!

-OK, so maybe the pool of Lutheran high school students is in decline. Same for other faith traditions. It's generational: Gen Z is more like the 60s boomers than the 60s boomers want to admit. But, to appeal to O.P. Kretzmann, VU of his vision wasn't just about Lutheranism, but also Christianity in a more inclusive and expansive way. As I've said before, VU is neither a woke institution nor an evangelical one. It has an opportunity to address faith issues from a bigger tent perspective, and if they can frame that in terms of education, scholarship, and practice, they can do things that may attract $$$ from funders who are weary of extremist noise getting so much attention. This is rather vague, I know, but I still think that VU's future depends in part on its ability to position itself somewhere in the broader middle and to appeal to folks who have what could be called sturdy traditional values, while being open to, and even welcoming of, different experiences and points of view.

[crusadermoe]

We have a well known solar furnace on campus. Is that generating any revenue? 

We are also in a constant hunt for clean energy. That bakery's dome shape (Nature's??) east of campus got me thinking one day. Nuclear energy is popular again in Europe where they have actually tried wind and solar with lame results. Sell the energy for university revenue and also excite the green folk who hate fossil fuels?

[vu72]

This was announced over a year ago--the plan to develop the University's extra real estate located primarily on Old Campus plus land surrounding the baseball diamond (130 acres total).

Obviously, this could bring in an enormous amount of funds for Valpo.

https://vitalizevalpo.com/

[crusader05]

I think Weisman was a possible site for a lease out but the University won't get rid of Heritage Hall and moving the president over there is probably a good idea as Kretzman is dreary and over crowded and it give the building purpose again.

As far as a public pool. That's going to be a huge money sink in an area where people can swim outside mostly in the summer and where there are YMCAs and backyard pools. Also there's a pretty big life guard shortage in the area that effected the local water park.

[crusadermoe]

72, good reminder.  That plan probably dwarfs all these other ideas.  Eastgate has always been an underused asset.

[vu84v2]

I am going to go in an entirely different direction.

Alter the compensation structure for as many employees (administration, faculty, etc.) as possible. Many ideas are "pie-in-the-sky" and are dubious in their ability to increase margin (the goal here is not to increase revenue, it is to increase revenue AND create margin dollars). Others are one-time gains that are fine, but do little to foster long term stability. Further, the foundations of financial stability remain - tuition, room and board, etc. Valpo needs to attract more students and provide great value to them. Rewards/compensation need to be meaningfully tied to this.

Universities' compensation structures are incredibly fixed - people get paid regardless of university-level outcomes and essentially have no financial incentive for the university to succeed. From my experience, I have seen universities try to incentivize people by doing things like "putting $10000 aside to reward _______". This is nothing when you consider it is split among many people or only a few people receive payouts. People who choose to engage heavily in service associated with attracting and retaining students might get a few tenths of a percent more when salaries are increased.

So my suggestion is to explicitly connect key performance areas (new student enrollment, retention) for the university to everyone's compensation as much as possible. Ideally, a company would reduce base pay and increase incentive-based pay, but that is nearly impossible with tenured faculty, etc. (unless you declare exigency). A huge and meaningful bonus pool that would only be paid out if challenging goals are met or exceeded would be good - but where does that money come from? (it would need to be a six figure annual pool to gain real attention).  At a minimum, Valpo should tie all salary increases to reaching macro-level enrollment and retention goals. In concert with this, a fundamental change that requires faculty to engage with prospective students and help them understand the value of a Valpo education is also required.

I realize this is incredibly difficult to do and that an actual plan would need a lot of refinement. But I do not think this direction gets much attention and, when it does, the steps are way too small.

[vu72]

VU72, do you know if that would involve selling or repurposing the old campus buildings? I thought Pres Padilla moved his whole office down to Old Campus away from Main Campus, and the also have the new Access College down to Weseman, at least for part of their activities. I can't tell from the maps whethere it is just developing some additional land, or whether it is actually Old Campus that the AVRO plan had/has intended to re-purpose.

I don't.  But if you look at a map, other than the Sig Ep house on Mound and one property on Linwood, the entire area is owned by the University. That's a lot of land with very large, mature trees and wouldn't need to involve the old law school or Heritage.